HOFER Walter Andreas (EN)
Career as an art dealer
Walter Andreas Hofer was born on 10 February 1893 in Berlin. After the final school exams he attended a business college. He then served in the First World War from 1914 to 1918.1 In 1920 he began his work in the art trade and entered the Munich art dealer Bachstitz’s service as an employee. Not long afterwards the firm’s Jewish proprietor Kurt Walter Bachstitz (1882–1949) married Hofer’s sister. In the following period, the Berliner became his brother-in-law’s close colleague. From 1922, he ran his Dutch office in The Hague. In 1928, however, he left the art dealer’s after a quarrel and returned to Germany. During the international economic crisis, Hofer studied art history for two years to deepen his knowledge in this field. Then from 1930 to 1934 he worked as assistant to the art dealer Gottlieb Reber (1880–1959) in Lausanne.2 The following year he returned to Berlin and set up his own business. In 1936 he met Hermann Göring through the former director of the Berlin Zeughaus-Museum, Dr. Moritz Julius Binder (1877–1947). Shortly afterwards Hofer married Bertha Fritsch and in 1938 the couple had a daughter.3 The first paintings that he sold to Göring included the portrayal of a penitent Mary Magdalene by the Dutchman Jan van Scorel (Mü-Nr. 6774). Göring is thought to have given this work to Adolf Hitler.4 Although he was not one of the traditional Berlin art dealers, Hofer managed to establish himself firmly in the years leading up to the Second World War as a supplier of works by Old Masters in Nazi ruling elite circles. As Hofer’s wife Bertha Hofer-Fritsch worked as a restorer, the dealer was in a position to offer his clients the complete supply-chain of advice, sale and repair of artworks. He thus had increased opportunities to make profits. At the same time he was in close contact with the leading art experts of the period to obtain advice on attributions of new works that he took on. His business practices included occasionally making gifts to good clients. Thus up to the end of the Second World War Göring received at least five objects as gifts. These included the Flemish panel painting dating from 1520 Angel Musician (RM-Nr. 77/Mü-Nr. 6305), which Hofer gave to Göring’s wife Emmy for Christmas in 1938.5
Supplier to the powerful figures of the Third Reich
Hofer’s extant accounts book refers to a total of 34 sales to the Reich Chancellery for the years 1938 to 1939 alone.1 These were more numerous than the supplies of Hitler’s favourite art dealer Karl Haberstock in the same period.2 However, this collaboration with the Reich Chancellery came to end on 20 June 1939, when Hitler appointed Hans Posse as head of the construction team for the new museum in Linz on the Danube (‘Sonderauftrag Linz’, the Linz Special Commission).3 The contact with Göring became more important than any with Hitler for Hofer in the following years. As a skilful salesman, the art dealer earned himself a role, probably by ingratiation into his way of thinking, that can best be described by the term ‘court supplier’. Up to 1945 he provided the Reich Marshal with 110 art objects, which included 83 paintings and 14 sculptures. In addition, tapestries and historic glass windows formed part of Hofer’s supplies.4 His standing with Göring did not escape the notice of contemporaries. This resulted in countless representatives of the Third Reich acquiring art works from Hofer, in order then to give them to the Reich Marshal. As Hofer knew his main client’s taste well, he was in a position like no other dealer of his day to supply the appropriate gifts.5
The works that Hofer supplied directly to Göring included Francesco Albani’s Venus and Amor (RM-Nr. 1079/Mü-Nr. 6360) and Hans Thoma’s Venus on the Dolphin with Amor?] (RM-Nr. 175/Mü-Nr. 5539).6 Pictures that came indirectly to Göring as a gift obtained by Hofer included Christ with the Samaritan Woman by the Well by Lucas Cranach the Elder (RM-Nr. 623/Mü-Nr. 5924), Holy Family in a Landscape by Marten van Heemskerck (today attributed to Jan Vermeyen) (RM-Nr. 686/Mü-Nr. 5880) and David Ternier’s Four Peasants in a Landscape (RM-Nr. 678/Mü-Nr. 5911).7
Business dealings in France
After the Wehrmacht’s conquest of the Benelux states and Northern and Western France in 1940, Hofer was one of the first few German art dealers allowed to travel into the occupied region with a travel permit issued by Göring in order to acquire art there for leading Nazi figures. Together with the art dealer Josef Angerer, who was also among Göring’s favourite suppliers, Hofer went as early as autumn 1940 to Paris, to look for artworks on sale there. They both also accompanied Göring on his first visit to the Jeu de Paume in Paris, where the Reich Marshal viewed confiscated artworks.1 Between 1940 and summer 1944 Hofer brought Göring 46 objects in total from France, of which only 18 are actually known to originate from the French art trade.2 These included Colijn de Coeter’s Mourning Mary Magdalene (RM-Nr. 1192/Mü-Nr. 6172) and Georges de La Tour’s Smoker (RM-Nr. 1072/Mü-Nr. 5538/MNR-Nr. 10). Hofer’s main suppliers there were the Paris dealers Camoin, Roger Dequoy, Martin Fabiani and Allen Loebl. Hofer also bought some individual works from Victor Mandl, Comte Trotti, Rudolf Holzapfel, Jacques Legenhoeck and Achille Boitel, as well as from the German national Hans Wendland, who was based in Switzerland but often stayed in France during the war.3 Hofer sought out all the art dealers in Paris before Göring entered their premises, and negotiated with them. For this reason it can be assumed that he also had contact with the direct French suppliers for the Reich Marshal. These dealers included Brimo-de-Laroussilhe, Charles Michel, Jean Schmidt and Jean-Louis Souffrice. The bills for the direct sales to Göring were paid at first by the art dealer Angerer, later by the Reich Marshal’s representative in Paris, General Friedrich Hanesse. With Hofer’s collaboration Göring acquired artworks in France to the value of approximately 12 to 15 million francs.4
Hofer strove to remain independent throughout his whole life in business and he avoided any close collaboration with other dealers.5 This probably explains why he did not form a cartel with any other business partner from France to supply art from France into the Reich. On account of his striving for independence he also declined to draw a regular salary in March 1941 when Göring appointed him as director of his art collection. He therefore worked in this capacity on an honorary basis, but he knew how to exploit commercially the esteem connected with the role of ‘Director of the Reich Marshal’s art collections’ and presumably profited from offers that went unnoticed by his main client.6 He jealously guarded his position with Göring and as an internationally experienced dealer found himself in a constant competitive struggle with the academically better educated art historian Bruno Lohse, who also sought out artworks for the Reich Marshal.7
Participation in the art looting
Given the unique position of trust that Hofer enjoyed with Göring, it comes as no great surprise that he was deeply entangled in the Reich Marshal’s 18 exchange deals with stolen Jewish art. By November 1940 Hofer had already organised together with Harald Turner of the German Military Administration the first exhibition of confiscated Jewish art at the Jeu de Paume in Paris, which Göring then visited. Up to the end of 1942 he prepared for every further visit by the Reich Marshal in the offices of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR).1 He first viewed confiscated works by Classical Modernist masters and made a pre-selection from these that Göring then exchanged with Old Masters for his collection. Hofer even went so far as to make recommendations for the transfer of Jewish collections to the ERR. In 1941 he suggested the transfer of Paul Rosenberg’s collection to Paris, after the Devisenschutzkommando, a search unit of the German customs, had confiscated it from a bank in Bordeaux. Here too the goal was to identify objects among the works of this collection for exchange deals.2 Furthermore, the Allied interrogators suspected after the War that Hofer tried to blackmail the painter Georges Braque into selling a painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder to Göring.3
Hofer was involved not only in the preparation but partly also in the execution of the exchange deals. He conducted negotiations with the Swiss dealers Theodor Fischer and Hans Wendland to replace the confiscated paintings with works by Old Masters for Göring. Some confiscated works found their way in diplomatic luggage into Switzerland, where Hofer passed them on to the dealers.4 After the war Hofer stated to American interrogators that he had clearly indicated to his business partners the Jewish origin of the works.5 On account of his entanglement in these deals, they nevertheless established that he had played a leading role in the trade with stolen art.6
After Hans Posse’s death, Hofer also managed to take up business connections with Hitler’s ‘Linz Special Commission’. Its new director Hermann Voss belonged to the circle of experts with whom he had dealings. In 1943 he then gave the painting Roman Forum, with the Colosseum in the Background from the Pannini school (Linz-No. 3317/Mü-Nr. 6651) to the ‘Special Commission’.7 No further notable sales followed, however, because of the course of the war. Instead, the dealer was drafted into the Wehrmacht in January 1944. At first as a soldier in the Luftwaffehe could continue to wear civilian clothes. From October 1944 though he had to carry out part-time military service at Göring’s country estate, Carinhall. The rest of the time he devoted himself to the task of inventorising Göring’s collection there.8 In April and May 1945 he organised the evacuation of the majority of these art holdings. The works were transported by train first to Veldenstein and Neuhaus (Franconia) and then on to Berchtesgaden and Unterstein (Upper Bavaria). Here the collection finally fell into the hands of the Allies. After the conquest of Berchtesgaden, Hofer volunteered to help the American troops to resume an inventarisation of the collection. Meanwhile some works had been lost, after Allied soldiers and the population of Berchtesgaden had plundered the railway carriages containing Göring’s art objects.9
His elevated position among Göring’s suppliers quickly brought Hofer to the notice of the American investigators. Like many other participants in the German art looting, he was interrogated in summer 1945 in Altaussee (Austria) concerning his activities in the interface between confiscations and legal acquisitions of artworks during the Third Reich. At first Hofer tried to deny any participation in the exchange deals with confiscated art. It was also part of his defence strategy to testify against other dealers in order to exonerate himself.10 To the allegation from statements by the simultaneously arrested ERR staff, however, he soon had to admit that he had taken part in these deals. The interrogations in Austria ended for him on 15 September 1945. Then the Americans took him to Nuremberg, where he was to testify as a witness for the trial taking place there against Göring and other major war criminals.11 He was not interrogated by the Tribunal though and arrived early in 1946 at the civilian internment camp in the state of Nuremberg. There Hofer learnt from a newspaper article about the activity of the Central Collecting Point in Munich, which was working to recover the art that the Nazis had stolen in the country and abroad.12
Resurgence after 1945
According to contemporary witnesses, Hofer did not speak particularly good English but had an excellent memory. In the investigation by the Central Collecting Point he could at the first attempt determine the origin of works illustrated there and communicated this to the American office. Based on his extensive knowledge, he was relocated in August 1946 to Munich, where he spent two weeks at the Collecting Point identifying works of unknown origin. The collaboration was so successful from the American viewpoint that they wanted to secure the former art dealer for further work. As furthermore he had never been a Nazi party member and he managed to prove credibly that he had helped several persecutees of the Nazi regime, he was released from custody in November 1946. The people he had helped included his brother-in-law Kurt Walter Bachstitz and the art historian Max J. Friedländer (1867–1958).1 Then the Americans placed him under house arrest in Unterstein, where his wife was living. Over the following two years, he made repeated journeys to Munich to determine the origin of works there. In the middle of 1948, the house arrest was lifted and Hofer was a free man again.2
The period in the Collecting Point was important for Hofer because he was able to make contacts here that became important for his career in the post-war period. He managed to build a relationship of trust with the commissioner responsible for French looted art, Rose Valland. He came into contact with German art historians who were working for the Americans there. The most important among these may have been the contact with Eberhard Hanfstaengl (1886–1973), the Head of the Bavarian State Picture Collections. From August 1948, Hanfstaengl also directed the successor institution of the Collecting Point for the state of Bavaria.3 Because of the good connections that Hofer had since made with the Allies, he managed to escape a trial in France of Germans responsible for art looting. A court in Paris finally sentenced him in 1950 to ten years’ imprisonment in absence. For his later life this judgement hardly played any role. In the de-Nazification the authorities classified him as a follower [Mitlaufer].4
In the same year Hofer also resumed his work as an art dealer in Munich. Previously he had succeeded in reacquiring parts of his own art collection that were in the region of the American occupation zone at the end of the war.5 By chance he was now living in the same house as his long-standing rival Karl Haberstock, who had once been Hitler’s favourite supplier. Unlike Haberstock, however, he managed to establish a commercial foothold along the Isar. A few years later he made further journeys into other European countries to trade with art. He continued this trading up to his death in 1975.6 His statements enabled the young Federal Republic to rebuff some Swiss compensation claims. The authorities in Bern tried in vain to shift some claims for damages undergone by the dealer Theodor Fischer and the collector Emil G. Bührle through the return of stolen works on to the Bonn government.7
However, it is likely that even after the war Hofer had some continuing involvement in questionable transactions. In 1997 the painting Scholar with Quill by Salomon Koinick from the Sammlung Schloss (Schloss-Nr. 138) came to light in Chile, having previously been confiscated by the Nazis in 1943 in France. According to information from the American researcher Jonathan Petropoulos, investigations of the commissioned auction house revealed that Hofer had sold this picture in Munich in the early 1950s, after which it had reached South America.8